Following Jesus

I woke up on Monday to a world of undisturbed snow. Me and the dog are up early, so we get to be the first footprints up and down the sidewalk.

There are bad mornings. Not awful. Not the worst. Just a bad morning.

I wrote these words for our church, and thought I would share them with you. It is Election Day.

When you first move to a new area there is the Honeymoon Period.  This is when everything is new and wonderful.  The differences between cultures are cute.  They make easy conversation with the family back home.  

I went to Wal-mart yesterday.  I had a list in my hand from school telling me what the kids needed for the year.  Folder, glue, erasable pens(?).  We hunted around, marking off each item as we found it.  It was going to be an uneventful, boring day of shopping.  But it didn’t go down that way. 

Where do you put your stress? One place I put my stress is in my shoulders. They get all tight and begin to ache as the days go on. I have friends that put their stress in their head. They get these terrible migraines that knock them down for a few days. I even have even seen people’s hair fall out due to stress. Straight up.

Discouragement came for me this weekend.  After checking and double checking all our tech we still lost the live feed right in the middle of the sermon.  The internet went down and we had to reset.  It happens, but this is two weeks in a row of dropping the ball on the tech front, and I left Oak Street with my head low.  I felt like a failure.  And the texts and calls I received to poke fun all increased this feeling. 

I think sometimes of that woman caught in adultery. This is a woman in sin. She is cheating on her husband and is caught doing so. She is dragged into the street, apparently straight from the act. She sits on the ground, and a group of men stand over her to decide her fate.

When I was a boy, I had visions.   I had no context for such things.  They were not religious experiences per se, but they did leave a mark.  I…

David prays for this baby.  He prays day and night.  He begs God to save the baby.  He takes neither bath nor food, sitting in sackcloth and ashes and in tears beseeches the God of his youth.